Melvil Dewey Medal

About the Melvil Dewey Medal

An annual award consisting of a bronzed medal and a 24k gold-framed citation of achievement for recent creative leadership of high order, particularly in those fields in which Melvil Dewey was actively interested: library management, library training, cataloging and classification, and the tools and techniques of librarianship.

Administered by:

2015 Recipient(s)

Hwa-Wei Lee

former chief of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress

Among the achievements noted by the Dewey Medal jury and the colleagues who wrote in support of this award are Dr. Lee’s leadership as dean of libraries at Ohio University and his tenure as chief of the Library of Congress’ Asian Division; his leadership in advancing international librarianship as a librarian, Fulbright scholar, consultant to numerous foundations, administrator, author of dozens of publications and co-founder and moving spirit behind the China-US library conference. Lee played a vital role in creating the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) and helped to train a new generation of library leaders from Asia by establishing the exemplary International Librarians Internship and Visiting Scholars Program. He was also recognized for his innovative approaches to building collections, such as the Center for International Collections and Overseas Chinese Documentation and Research Center, which he established at Ohio University, and the Asian American Pacific Islander collection, which he initiated at the Library of Congress.